Housekeeping Interview Questions

Your Housekeeping team has a huge impact on the guest experience at your business. The cleanliness of their room, common areas and bathrooms will be one of the first things they notice. And, it’ll certainly be something they will review if it is not up to scratch. Therefore, hiring the right person is essential.

You should seek these skills in your Housekeeping staff:

Strong attention to detail.
Swift and efficient worker.
Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
Physically able to lift and transport certain stock.
Able to work on feet for long periods.
Basic knowledge of cleaning product safety.

Interviewing a Housekeeper

Your Housekeeping staff will be in charge of ensuring your business looks the way you want it to. They’ll also work directly with your customers from time to time. So, getting the hiring right is of high importance.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide for use early on in your interview process. Using these finely tuned questions, you’ll be able to figure out if the candidate is a good fit, early on in the conversation.

How to open the job interview

If your potential Housekeeping hire is nervous, they may not let their skills shine through straight away. Therefore, it is a good idea to ease them into the conversation with a couple of positive and friendly interview questions.

This section of the interview only has to last a few minutes at most but will make a world of difference.

Job Description available

See our Housekeeping job description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What is one of your proudest moments as a Housekeeper?

What is something you enjoy about being part of a Housekeeping team?

Behavioral Questions

What types of businesses have you worked as a Housekeeper in before?
Housekeepers can work anywhere from hotels to office buildings. Knowing what your candidate’s experience has been up until now is helpful as you’ll know what areas they need to be onboarded into.
If receiving a guest complaint during a particularly busy day, how do you remain motivated?
From time to time, Housekeeping staff will receive complaints from guests. Your candidate should be able to note down this complaint and pass it onto the right team while using some learned behaviours to be able to continue their routine without disruption or decreased motivation.
When working through an extremely busy shift that requires an increased number of rooms to be cleaned, how do you ensure quality and efficiency?
This is something that will certainly come from experience. A Housekeeper should have several techniques that they use to ensure high standards in their work, and that enables them to ‘survey’ their own quality. Here, you’ll get a chance to hear some individual behaviours.
How would you deal with a particularly messy or damaged room? How would you stay motivated to complete your routine?
Finding a room in an extreme state of disarray is not unheard of. The correct process here would be to spend a little extra time on this room while reporting any extreme damages to the correct team. Anything that is beyond a Housekeeper's role e.g. damaged surfaces or electronics can be left to a different team, to ensure minimal disruption to routine.
When working longer shifts alone, how do you stay motivated?
Housekeeping will often spend long periods of time alone, here you can ensure that this is something your candidate is okay and comfortable with while hearing some techniques they use to deal with this.

Soft Skills

If a guest was particularly chatty during a busy shift, how would you deal with this situation?
Here, your candidate should be able to demonstrate basic communication skills to politely continue with their work routine while remaining professional with the guest.
How do you stay organised when taking care of multiple tasks in one room?
Here, you test the candidate’s organisation skills. They should touch on having a set routine that they follow in each room, or a similar organisation technique.
If you were working on a bigger room along with a colleague and noticed them making a cleaning mistake, how would you deal with this?
In some cases, a Housekeeper may work on a task as a team. Knowing they value safety and high-standard cleaning procedures enough to communicate best practices (in a professional and friendly way!) is a huge tick in the candidate’s box.
How do you ensure you’re providing the best possible service in each room you clean.
Here you’ll get an idea of the candidate’s motivation, as well as an insight into their strengths.

Hard Skills

What, if any, professional cleaning or chemicals training have you undertaken?
Depending on the seniority of your particular position, this question could be essential. Either way, it will help you to understand how much onboarding your candidate will need.
What skills do you have that make you a perfect fit for a Housekeeping role?
Here, you give the candidate a chance to show off their skillset and confidence areas. They may mention soft or hard skills here.
When working with cleaning equipment and chemicals, how do you ensure you’re adhering to safety protocols?
This gives the candidate a chance to really dive into their understanding of their equipment, along with how much of a priority safety is for them.
What equipment have you worked with in previous roles?
Here, you’ll get an idea of what equipment they will need to be trained on and what new skills they can bring to your team.
Do you have any experience in training new starters on your team?
The relevance of this question will, again, be dependent on the seniority of the role you’re recruiting for. However, it is still interesting to know in either case.

Operational / Situational Questions

Imagine you come to clean a room, and discover that something has been considerably damaged. Walk me through your process here.
Here, a few notes should be made by your candidate. This includes room number, item damaged and level of the damage. This should be passed onto the relevant team. The room should be otherwise cleaned (if safe to do so) and the routine should be continued.
How would you deal with a complaint from a customer on the size of their room?
Sadly, this may be a complaint your Housekeeper gets from time to time. The complaint should be noticed and passed on to a relevant team, and their room should be cleaned as usual.
Walk me through a time you’ve been assigned a task that you were not sure how to complete, how did you safely deal with this?
Sometimes, a task outside of the Housekeepers job description may be assigned to them. Communication is key here. The candidate should be able to ask a team member or lead for help. If still not sure whether they can complete the task safely, they may have it reassigned. Safety and quality should always be a priority.
Describe a time when you have accommodated a customer with allergies or special needs.
This question’s relevance will, again, be dependent on your service and the role’s seniority. A senior cleaner should be knowledgeable on cleaning material allergens and how to switch these out when needed.